The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-29
THE ANALYTIC SCHOOL
 IN FICTION.

The literary Pasteurs of ts-day, the leaders of this germ age in literature, find their stronghold in what is termed the analytic school of fiction. With their egotistic microscope held alike relentlessly over a poor strug- -gling human motive, an -eyelash, or the fate of a disembodied soul they pose and analyze in the presence of i. their readers. l. seems that the skill they show in their analysis pleases them more than the result of that ,analysis. They subtly differentiate shades, bubbles and even tints of thought. The long procession of psychological emotions through which the heroine had to pass before she de- cided whether to tie her hair with blue ribbon or pink one is painfully exact in its description. The ribbon she selected "is not exactly pink either, it is rather that delicate shade that white assumes when the last rosy rays of the dying sun fall upon it, or that dainty mingling of red and white in the cheek of some village beauty. The pink seemed in certain way to answer the vague, half timid, half tender yearnings of her heart, strange too, she felt that color could by some intangible association express her thought and her mood"
 This painful analysis gives to even the best books merely the virtue of being photographic, they are true, but it is truth that is mere "dead accu- racy," there is no chance for inter- pretation. A great painting derives much of it's power from its suggest iveness, the grass seems almost to wave gently in the hot quivering at mosphere before the eyes of the spec tator, the sea has SO angry and fierce look that one can almost hear the nut tering, threatening surge upon the shore, the precipitation seems fairly t. start out as we look at the silky Hanks of the war horses. These phases are not really present in the picture, except in essence, in sugges- tion, by the presence of certain ''de- veloping characteristics" that elicit these accessories of reality as necessary consequents to what is seen. Thus the observer becomes co-laborator with the artist to the extent of inter- pretation. The parade of analysism in fiction kills the artistic feeling of cooperation for, as in the photograph, all must be accepted as it stands, and the minutia given, no room is left for the imagination.
 Analysis is the key y-note of the best work in fiction, but not as it is repre- sented by the analytic school" Anal ysis is the mere machinery of thought, the means by which it is formed, the laboratory where it is generated, it is the preparation for the work, not the end in itself. This analysis should go on in the mind of the writer and should only show itself to the reader as he may develop it for himself from a consideration of the one or two vital and developing characteristics" used by the author; that is, the writer should be an analyst in private, and a synthesist in public. For himself he should analyze the subject until he knows every element and its value, and from this analysis synthetically present the elements that will permit the reader to develop the others. The musician, artist, wit, actor and orator in their fullest success follow this nat ural law.
 The musician who executes some classic composition is thus synthetic in public. The analysis, the study of the value of notes, their combinations and sequence made rapidly with his eye, and based on years of previous study, gives the resultant impressions which are synthetically gathered to- gethcr by his fingers. The music of the schoolgirl picking the notes of "The Maiden's Prayer" torturing the scales and struggling speculatively with her chords and bars, is not very entertaining. She is analytic in pub lie.
 The artist when he puts his crayon to canvas, has the ideal face already analysed in his mind, and in his sketch he merely combines the elements thereby discovered. Take the work of any famous etcher, the face seems to be made up of but five or six lines roughly noted, yet the expression is perfect, the mind filling in the sug- gcstion and aiding in the interpreta- tion. They would say there is in such face no analysis, because the ninety -seven eyelash hairs are not drawn separately, yet this is the truest and best analysis, for it is quantitative as we'll as qualitative. It is not necessary that this should be done by conscious effort of the mind, as practice or genius produces it al- most without knowledge of process. The artist then knows the values and relations of the lines, which is the most important and which being put before the eye, develops the others.